Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1887-04-06
Our Dumb Relations.

It was said of st. Francis of Assist
that he had attained, through the for
Sor of his love, the secret of that deep
amity with God and His creation which,
in the language of inspiration, makes
man to be in league with the stones of
the field, and the beasts of the field To
be at peace with him. The world has
never been without tender souls, with
whom the Golden Rule has broader
application than its letter might seem
TO warrant The ancient Eastern seers
recognized the rights of the brute crea-
ton, and regarded the unnecessary
taking of the life of the humblest and
meanest as sin; and in almost all the
old religions of the world there are
legends of saints in the depth of whose
peace with God and nature all life was
sacredly regarded as the priceless gift
of Heaven, and who were thus enabled
to dwell safely amid lions and serpents.
1t is creditable to human nature and
its unperverted instincts that stories
and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness
ard affection between men and animals
are always listened to with interest and
approval. How pleasant to think of
the Arab and his horse, whose friend
ship has been celebrated in song and
romance. OF Vogelwied, the Mime
singer, and his bequest to the birds
OF the English Quaker visited where
ever he went by tlocks of birds, which.
with cries of joy, alighted OH his broad
brimmed hat and his drab coat sleeves.
,I1 IL. III
blind and infirm, cropping abroad of an
evening for oysters for his cat. OF
Walter Scott and John Brown Of Edin-
burg and their dogs. OF our own
Thoreau, instinctively recognized by
bird and beast as friend Emerson
says of him: ''His intimacy with ami
mails suggested what Thomas Fuller
records of Butler, the apiologist, that
either he had told the bees things, or
the bees had told him. Snakes toiled
round his legs; the fishes SWAIN into his
hand; he pulled the woodchuck out Of
his hole by his tail, and took foxes un-
der his protection from the hunters. +"
In the greatest of the ancient Hindu
poems-the sacred book Of the Mahab-
harata--there is passage of excep-
tional beauty and tenderness which re-
cords the reception of King Yudish-
thira at the gate of Paradise. A pill
grim to the heavenly city, the King
had travelled over vast spaces, and one
by one the loved ones. the companions
of his journey, had all fallen and left
him alone, save his faithful dog, which
still followed. He was met by Indra
and invited to enter the holy city. But
the King thinks of his friends who have
fallen on the way and declines to 90 in
without them. The god tells him they
are all within waiting for him. JOY
| full, he is about to seek them, when he
looks upon the poor dog, who, weary
| and wasted, crouches at his feet, and
asks that he, too, may enter the gate.
Indra refuses, and thereupon the King
declares that to abandon his faithful
dumb friend would be as great sin as
to kill Brahmin.
away with that felicity whose price is to
abandon the faithful
! Never. como veal or wo, will leave my faith
ful dog.
The poor creature in fear and distress, has
trusted in my power 20 save him;
| Not, therefore. for life itself will break my
| plighted word.
In full sight of heaven he chooses to
go to hell with his dog. and straight
way dcscends, as he supposes, thither.
But his virtue and faithfulness change
his destination to heaven, and he finds
himself surrounded by his old friends
and in the presence of the gods, who
thus honor and reward his humanity
and unselfish loye.--JotR q. Whittier,
| IN our Dumb Aninidfs.